Habits Bosses Hate

The Habits That Make You A Pain To Work With

You’re relatively new to the workforce and you’re eager to make a positive impression on your boss. That’s a great attitude to have, but it isn’t enough.

The truth is that when you enter the professional world, you bring some personal habits that may or may not please the boss. And it’s likely that you lack the proper perspective to know the difference.

The office environment functions according to well-established and preordained routines. It relies on patterns, systems, cycles, and procedures for it to run efficiently. Such an atmosphere engenders various habits in everyone — a fact that’s as easy to forget as it is imperative to remember. As you meander about the office, trying to get a footing, it would be wise to remember that good habits generally require an effort to develop, whereas bad habits germinate in their absence.

Before it all becomes too familiar to you, learn the kinds of habits bosses hate so you can avoid developing them in the first place.

bosses hate it when…

You don’t show initiative

No boss wants the burden of having to chronically tell you what to do. It’s time-consuming, exhausting and he’ll lose confidence in your abilities. It’s a manner that is lazy and it’s one of those habits bosses hate.

Don’t wait to be told what to do, particularly during downtime. Your boss would rather see that you’ve taken the initiative to alphabetize a filing cabinet than surf the web when things are slow.

When you give the impression that you’re unmotivated, you send a clear message of disinterest to your boss. Your boss probably has a lot invested in his job, so one of the last things he wants to see or hear from you is a lack of regard toward, or affection for, your job.

You show too much initiative

On the other hand, you should also be concerned with showing too much initiative. It doesn’t matter if it stems from excessive ambition, motivation, energy, or even a basic desire to please, it’s one of many habits bosses hate.

Be careful not to overdo tasks and assignments; it’s generally unnecessary. Instead of giving the impression that you’re hard-working and creative, it has the potential for seeming inefficient: Why bother adding colors and graphs to a research assignment when that time would have been better spent getting on with other work?

An additional danger of showing too much initiative is in showing disrespect toward the office hierarchy. When you go above and beyond the call of duty, there’s a chance that you’ll step on some toes.

You make excuses

This is one of the most annoying habits bosses hate. If you give him an excuse, it means that you overlooked some responsibility and are now offering a defense on your own behalf for that oversight.

“I didn’t get the research done because I had a flat tire and by the time I got home it was really late.”

Whether or not that statement is true, what your boss hears is: “It’s not my fault; a flat tire absolved me of responsibility.” Your boss will be less focused on what you actually said and more on what you imply.